The Chartpattana Party was renamed the "Chart Pattana Kla" Party at yesterday's special assembly in which former Kla Party leader Korn Chatikavanij was appointed as a party executive.
The move followed an announcement early this month that Mr Korn would be joining the party's team to tackle economic problems.
At yesterday's meeting, Chartpattana leader Tewan Liptapallop informed the gathering that Mr Korn resigned as Kla leader and applied to join the party on Sept 2.
Appearing alongside Mr Korn after the appointment were Atavit Suwannapakdee, Kla's former secretary-general, and almost 40 people who were formerly unveiled as potential Kla Party candidates.
Mr Korn said it was clear that they were all joining the Chartpattana Kla Party. Earlier this month he was tight-lipped about the future of Kla Party executives and potential candidates.
He said their ideology and spirit remained unchanged.
"Let have confidence in our forces as we are inspired to solve the country's problems through a creative and pragmatic approach. It's been our principal approach from the beginning and we grow more confident that we are strong and can be close to our goals," Mr Korn said.
Kla was founded by Mr Korn, a seasoned politician with economic expertise, who served as finance minister from Dec 20, 2008–Aug 9, 2011, in the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration. It was registered as a political party with the Election Commission after the general election in 2019.
Mr Korn was quoted as saying early this month that the change in the calculation of party-list MPs would be particularly significant for newly established parties and that it would be an advantage if small parties joined forces and worked together.
According to Suwat Liptapanlop, chairman of Chart Pattana, Mr Korn and his 80-man team would handle economic issues and they would strengthen the party's economic team.
He said the name change was part of the party's rebranding which was proposed by Mr Thewan and agreed to by party members.
The new name would eliminate confusion among voters as other parties have similar names and it would distinguish the party from others following the change to the election rules, he said.
"Chart Pattana has a good meaning so we decided to keep it but we wanted to make it clear and different. Several names were proposed but Chart Pattana Kla had 259 votes from over 300 participants," he said.